"My child's collapsed bowel"

My 9 yr old child was having severe stomach pains and wasn’t eating last year so I took them to our family GP. After looking over my child the doctor told me to take them straight to the emergency department at the Brisbane Royal Children's Hospital as he thought it might be their appendix. We were seen very quickly once we arrived. My child has a fear of hospitals and is not very willing to say when something is wrong. The doctor in the emergency department seemed to be only willing to talk to my child and I felt she wasn’t listening to what I was saying regarding their symptoms. The doctor asked them to stand and jump up and down on the spot 3 times, which my child did. She then said it wasn’t their appendix and sent them home with no instructions or advice. The next day my child’s pain continued and still wasn’t eating so I took them back to our GP who once again referred them to the Royal Children’s hospital Brisbane, emergency department. Again, after what appeared to be a quick run through of their symptoms, this time with another doctor, I was once again told it wasn’t their appendix. Finally on our 3rd referral to the hospital in as many days, we got a fantastic doctor who I felt watched my child carefully and didn’t seem to just listen to their answers of “I’m fine”. This doctor started the process of elimination and finally it was discovered with an ultrasound that my child’s bowel had in fact collapsed on itself. We spent over a week in hospital in both emergency and surf ward. All the nurses we met were fantastic and went out of their way to not just make my child as comfortable as possible, but also myself as I stayed with them. The final doctor who diagnosed my child appeared to go above and beyond even staying back after his shift ended, waiting for results. It was just a shame it seemed to take 3 visits to even get any tests done let alone a diagnosis.